Markets firm in morning deals

BSE metal index top sectoral gainer

Markets are trading on a firm note in the morning deals. The Sensex is up 113 points at 18,821 and the Nifty has advanced 34 points to 5,710 levels.

Meanwhile, some amount of selling presssure is visible in the realty, IT and teck stocks. The respective indices are quoting marginally lower on the BSE. on the other hand, the BSE metal index is the top sectoral gainer, up 1.2% or 124 points at 10,622. Healthcare, consumer durables, capital goods, bankex and FMCG indices are also up 0.7-1% each.

Among the individual stocks, Aban Offshore is trading higher by 3% at Rs 474 after oil exploration firm said that it has received a three-year contract from Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd.

Zee News has surged in trades in spite of news that the stocks would be shifted to the T group on both BSE and NSE. This followes a surveillance review where the exchanges identified various scrips for restricted trading category.
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(Updated at 9.19 AM)

Markets have opened on a positive note in trades tracking strong global cues. The Sensex has opened higher by 130 points at 18,838 and the 50 share Nifty has advanced 38 points to open at 5,713.

Overnight, the US stocks slipped in light trading on Monday, pulling back from recent five-year highs ahead of an earnings season expected to be weak.

The Dow Jones fell 26 points to 13,584, S&P 500 lost 5 points to close at 1,456 and Nasdaq Composite dropped 24 points to end at 3,112.

In Asia markets rose on Tuesday but were capped by concerns over global growth prospects, especially in the world's second-biggest economy China, and expected weak U.S. corporate earnings. The Hang Seng was up 1% or 230 points at 21,055, Shanghai Composite advanced 2% to 2,116 and the Seoul Composite was up 0.3% at 1,988.

Meanwhile, The IMF cut its global growth forecast on Tuesday for the second time since April and warned U.S. and European policymakers that failure to fix their economic ills would prolong the slump.

Global growth is too weak to bring down unemployment and what little momentum exists is coming primarily from central banks, the International Monetary Fund said in its World Economic Outlook, released ahead of its twice-yearly meeting, which will be held in Tokyo later this week.

Back home, buying is visible across the board. ICICI Bank is the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, up nearly 2% at Rs 1,073. Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, Sterlite Industries, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Reliance Industries have also opened higher by 1-2-1.7% each.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Wipro and BHEL are among the notable losers from the heavyweight pockets.

All the sectoral indices are up 0.3-1.2% each. The BSE banking index- bankex is the top gainer, up 1.2% or 157 points at 13,208. Metal, capital goods, consumer durables, FMCG, auto, healthcare and oil & gas indices have also advanced 0.5-0.9% each in the opening deals.

The broadwer markets are also trading higher. The BSE mid-cap index is up 0.7% or 135 points at 6,697 and the small-cap index has advanced 42 points to 7,175.

The overall breadth is positive as 998 stocks are advancing while 296 are declining.